Guild Wars 2

Before I go onto what has to be improved on the current system for Structured PvP and therefore Tournaments too, I first want to mention a few posts which have pointed out some things.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/To-nerf-or-not-to-nerf
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Guide-to-make-this-game-attend-the-next-MLG

The first one describes pretty well, why there is not so much fun anymore in SPvP since release as the meta has evoled and people have gotten to understand the game more.
The second one states a possible solution to have a broader community for PvP.

Now let me list a few things which explains why PvP is currently not much of an enjoyable choice.

- Hotjoin has still 8vs8 servers. For newer players who often face classes which are FOTM ( Flavours of the Month ) ( Thief and Mesmer especially ), it takes away some fun. The amount of knowledge which can be achieved through Hotjoin is also limited.
- Glory farming. Since Glory is just used for aesthetical purposes, it does not hold any value aside that. As a result, there is not really any reason to farm it. Instead, the game itself and its mechanics shall be the reward.
- Anti-Fun-Playstyles. The Structured PvP sub-forum has a wave of posts about how few fun it is to face classes representing this Anti-Fun-Playstyle. Most popular examples are Thieves and Mesmers. Especially newer players get discouraged if they have to fight a mesmer. There is a lot of dmg coming from the Clones and Phantasms.
- Too high ticket costs for Paid Tournaments. Reroll, a dedicated and competitive PvP-Player posted some calculation on the forums. For everyone except the most succesful teams playing paids is a loss. One can argue that the experience one gets in paid tournaments matters too. Well, it does. But there is also a high skill-gap in the competitive teams and newer teams.
- No Trebuchet to practice for Kyhlo. The one in the mists as much as I remember from when i used it months ago, does not help much with getting used on how to shoot the trebuchet on the last map in tournaments. This is just a minor issue though.
- Few viable Builds. Bunker vs Burst Meta. sadly, some classes are in a sub-par state if played on highest level. Some require specific team-compositions, others specific tactis. Also, not everyone enjoys the insane burst given out by classes like thief or mesmer. Same goes for the sheer bunkering of classes like guardian and elementalist.
On the latest State of the Guru it has been mentioned by Helseth from Team Curse than the Portal from Mesmers is currently mandatory on the highest lvl of PvP and make the meta also stable. That makes mesmers mandatory in every composition or at least most.
- Too few game modes. Conquest has gotten quite boring for most players over the last few months. In the latest Interview with Jonathan Sharp it has been mentioned that a new type of tournament comes out in the upcoming patch. There has to be more game modes on the long run though. But there will most likely be much more in the future.

Now my suggestions on how to make the PvP-Part in GW2 much more enjoyable for the players and therefore much more profitable for Arena-Net. Arena-Net wanted to have GW2 be an E-Sports in the future, so.

- Change the Hot-Join-Servers to 5vs5-servers only. It helps newer players more than zerging on an 8vs8-server. Also teaches bad habits.
- Make every armor in the mists accesible, but have very different, fancy armor sets for Paid Torunaments, Free Tournaments, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly Tournaments. No one wants to farm millions of glory for fancy armors. Especially casual and newer players. The time spent on playing PvP in GW2 does also not equal the amount of skill one has, so one is automatically not an awesome player if he has rank 50+ armor or weapons. ( There is still some value to it, but less than a ladder/leaderboard or anything ) Make fancy armor accessible through a higher rating on a leaderboard.
- Implement a Leaderboard/Ladder System. Most people do not enjoy how the tournament system currently works. One reason being too high ticket prices for paid tournaments or how qp does not hold any value at the moment. There also has to be Solo-Queue and Team-Queue. I know enough competitive or decent players who do not have a team at the moment. So playing Solo-Q would solve it partly since there is a goal to aim for.
- Lower ticket prices until there is a different system implemented for competitive play. 5 Tickets is too much and having less than 150 people playing paids each evening does not look bloomy. We – competitive players – want to have a lively community.
- More game modes. More are coming, not everyone is patient. How to handle that, more about that below.
- Balance classes around not having any Anti-Fun-Playstyle. Thieves could for example have no stealth anymore but a very evasive playstyle. Mesmers need also more focus on themselves than on Clones and Phantasms. Let confusion not be like dmg but let somebody walk around aimlessly. Like Rogues in WoW used to do on one skill.
- Nerf some burst and nerf the survivability of some classes. There is too much dmg being dished out sometimes, so are guardians for example able to survive 1vs2 or 1vs3 for a long time. It makes the current meta very stable in terms of capping and decapping too. Other classes can shine again like engineer.
- Proper trebuchet in the mists.

But what all of also want a lot is transparency in what is being developed or on the way. A deveolper’s diary would be pretty sweet.
If that does not happen, people will get very frustrated for hanging in the air, not knowing what is coming and if it is worth to keep playing.
So tell us more!

That is it for now, if anyone has more suggestions, feel free to mention them.

For those who may have doubts if I have the necessary experience to evaluate the current situation: I am at 211 QP ( and getting more ), I played versus various decent teams ( top teams included ) and also won games versus them. I know various decent and competitive players, like Naito, Lowell and Magz. So I do know what is going.

Lastly, I hope the developers will support us in our wishes to have GW2 be an future E-Sport.

Peace Out – Bai An Le

P.S. I hope this post does not have to be in the Structured-PvP-Forum since I also gave my suggestions.
I also gotta mention, the combat mechanics are pretty amazing, so it would be saddening if GW2 does not become an E-Sport.

+1 from Naito

/15char

I also forgot, we need a proper grouping system for PvP, like an internal “Looking for Group” Menu World of Wacraft has. For PvE, it would also be sweet.

And spectator mode has to be implemented.